Background to Karate

"Karate-do: The Way of the Empty Hand"

Karate originated in an island called Okinawa, south of Japan. It is believed that martial arts were first introduced to the Okinawans by the Chinese and they were then built upon and developed. Several bans on weaponry on the island of Okinawa forced the people to come up with a fighting style which only made use of the body as a weapon. This is how the name of karate came about - "empty hand".

Very little is actually known about the development of karate over the hundreds of years which passed. However, it was eventually brought to the rest of the world by Gichin Funakoshi.

He travelled to Japan in 1915 and put on several demonstrations at other martial arts clubs and universities. Karate became instantly popular among the Japanese and in 1936, Funakoshi established the first karate club in Japan, which was known as the "Shotokan". This eventually led to the creation of the Japan Karate Association in 1955 with Funakoshi as the chief instructor. He remained there until he died in 1957, at the age of 88.

"Shotokan"

Since leaving Okinawa, karate has become standardised into several styles or "ryu". Shotokan is just one such style. Each discipline of karate places emphasis on different aspects of the martial art, such as speed, strength or perfection of technique. Shotokan remains very much traditional, combining all of these aspects together.